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Birmingham doesn't really need a bus station in the City Centre for local routes, because of far too many routes & a load of routes are high frequency too, frequent routes like the 50 could need 2 or 3 layover spaces as well as stand space should a bus station be built.

Whilst the likes of Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol & few other Towns & Cities have bus stations, however they're used by regional routes & coaches, most of the local routes operate as cross town routes, or start/terminate at another location Town/City Centre

Don't forget the 49 which replaced the 69 by extending to terminate at Weoley Castle. Now that was a long route to Solihull too.

And the version of the 48 which took place after the network review in 2018. Where instead of going straight to Weoley Castle and Northfield after the QE it went round Hawkseley etc to replace the 84.

I do remember getting the 49 Solihull-Northfield end to end a load of times very long route that took 90 minutes.

35 Birmingham-Kings Heath which did a long convoluted loop from Kings Heath via Hawksley & Northfield to Kings Heath think took 90 minutes, may have taken longer, & had to be operated by single deckers because it went under the low bridge at Bournville

X8 Birmingham-Wolverhampton can take just under 90 minutes off peak, & up to 20 minutes longer in the peak

Outside West Midlands.

TrawsCymru have a load of routes that can take well over 3 hours, T2 Bangor-Aberystwyth takes nearly 4 hours, T4 Cardiff-Newtown takes around 4 hours too

Here's the new first 374/375 Bristol-Taunton/Bridgewater timetable

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/sites/default/files/public/maps/374_375_376_376a_Wells_Web.pdf

Stagecoach operate some monster routes in Scotland, but tend to allocate coaches, however 35 Aberdeen-Inverness uses standard buses & can take 5 hours 30 minutes, i believe the 35 is one of the most scenic routes in the UK too. 

Found some info on the MidlandRed.net site, & it shows Midland Red West ran an X73 Wolverhampton-Bristol in 1985 which then became Birmingham-Gloucester after d-reg, the service was withdrawn 1988

http://midlandred.net/service/timetable/display.php?routeID=1400

http://midlandred.net/service/timetable/display.php?routeID=3427

http://midlandred.net/service/timetable/search.php?service=all&operator=mrw&sortby=service&area=all

Stagecoach acquires Tower Transit with the depot at Lea Interchange from Kelsian Group

https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/stagecoach/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=273&newsid=1588406

Next time, should try Birmingham to Carlisle on Avanti West Coast, might get some decent advances [i've seen £27.70 single listed for the direct services], but the normal off peak fare is £105 return, &  valid from 06.15 on a normal weekday

Then Northern, Carlisle to Newcastle, the Northern fare is from £18.70 off peak day return, to £23.60 anytime return.

Always buy split tickets on long distance services

NX website does not have network maps and does not have timetables of all operators, only NX  and many of those in a printer-unfriendly format with much wasted empty space and no street-by-street route listing.
The tourist information desk at the library is just the library information desk that's always been there with a single rack of heritage trail leaflets, no other tourist information whatsoever and I doubt very much the staff expect or are equipped to deal with the kind of visitor questions, accommodation requests, travel questions and theatre and event bookings that a traditional tourist information centre would handle.

That may well be, but of the bus companies, NXWM is by far the easiest site of all the major bus operators to use, try navigating through Arriva & Stagecoach's sites for example, which is one of the worst sites on the net, as for network maps, NXWM don't really need to publish there own maps, as Network West Midlands publish the network maps for the West Midlands which include all operators anyway.

Indeed, Jenkin Road is one of the steepest roads in Sheffield, I know having grown up at the bottom of it!  In the mid 90s Sheffield Omnibus ran up part of it, Atlantean or National thrash up there was just crazy.  In more recent years First have run up the steepest part of it but generally it's Streetlites and B7/B9 haulage which seems to manage it OK. Watched Le Tour pass pretty much by my parents house, fair to say some of the riders clearly didn't appreciate that sort of climb at the end of a spectator type stage!

:D

It's not that long of a climb in terms of length isn't it, but it's the steepness of it that catches a few out, even though a few would have rode it in training before the tour.

The route that i caught was the Sheffield-Meadowhall[think the route number was 36], i see the route has been now partly replaced 32/32A but only uses some of the length, & 95A which uses the full length of Jenkin Road

I've been on a bus up the notorious hill that is Jenkin Road in Sheffield, this has a max gradient of 14.1%, with an average gradient of 11%, this was used in stage 2 of the 2014 Tour De France[the first 3 stages were held in England], & was a categorised climb[category 4] which was called cote de Jenkin Road for the race. ;D.

Sports take place on Boxing Day[quite often sees the biggest attendances of the season], i see Villa & Wolves are scheduled for the home matches, & not everyone has or has access to a car, so have to rely on buses with no trains operating & taxis being quite expensive.

Plus as said people still need to get to/from work & seeing there families, & still need to travel on the bus if they don't have access to private transport

 :(

Yesterday it was due to the crash on the M6 which closed lanes all day whilst they replaced th barriers, forcing loads of traffic through Walsall

Thanks for that info, i did notice the M6 was nose to tail & lanes closed off, when the bus i was on was going over it through Great Barr, the A34 is a pain in the backside with all those roadworks & it's all the way to Walsall too at the mo, & there's a long diversion north of Walsall too Bloxwich Road South is closed & the X51 i was on diverted via Ryecroft & Harden

There was passengers at the Designer Outlet in Cannock that complaining to the driver of the Cannock bound X51, they'd been waiting over an hour for a Birmingham bound X51, the driver radioed to control, think he got permission to run dead from the bus station to pick up those passengers.

A34 in north Birmingham is a nightmare at the moment, X51 is running 15-20 late (even later at times) & that's off peak, & i saw 2 southbound X51s together (most likely both were late )in Bloxwich & this is the every 20 minutes section, yesterday afternoon.

I'm surprised it's that low, as i thought it was 12 hours, including time to sleep.

I'd have thought the biggest problem would be going from finishing the late shift, then doing an early shift next up

Isn't it minimum 12 hours rest between shifts?

.

I prefer drive in reverse out, aka sawtooth style bus stations, the stands are on one concourse, so passengers don't have to cross over the busway, so everything can be enclosed on the passenger side.